Since the birth of photography, photographers and viewers have strived to make pictures more realistic by creating three dimensional images. This has lead to the development of a wide range of methods and equipment for recording and viewing three dimensional images. Such methods included the viewing of the images through special lenses, such as 3D glasses for the individual viewer; the creation of images on a flat surface through use of concentric circular lenses in conjunction with line screens having alternate opaque and transparent vertical lines; creating three dimensional images through use of a plurality of angularly spaced mirrors; viewing images through rapidly moving screens having spaced-apart openings; viewing a television screen through a series of vertically extending cylindrical lenses mounted to the television screen between the viewer and the television screen; and rapidly rotating a screen displaying a fast changing series of images generated by an external projector rotating synchronously with the screen.
Although prior art 3D images appeared to have depth, none of the prior methods of creating and viewing 3D figures have resulted in the creation of a three dimensional fixed image that can be viewed through an angle of 360.degree..